Portable subscriber units, such as laptop computers, personal digital assistants, and wireless messaging units, move about and thus can connect with a network at many different connection points. When an Internet Protocol (IP) connection is made between a portable subscriber unit at a new connection point and a target device via a wide area network, the connection setup time can become lengthy. Two contributing factors are domain name server (DNS) name to IP address conversion, and router path determination. These factors can cause connection setup delays of more than one minute, depending on network traffic and the number of routers used between the new connection point and the target device.
Thus, what is needed is a method and apparatus in a portable subscriber unit for minimizing a connection setup time through a communication network. Preferably, the method and apparatus will operate automatically and transparently to reduce the connection setup time.